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The Broadband Forum is integrating the NG-PON2 Forum into its fold to create the new NG-PON2 Council, aiming to accelerate the development of the passive optical networking standard as it continues to gain momentum with traditional telcos and competitive providers. Integrating the NG-PON2 group makes sense as the Broadband Forum has been working on NG-PON2 (next-generation passive optical networking) standardization efforts for over a year via the Fiber Access Networks Working Group. The Broadband Forum said in a release that besides conducting work on management and testing standards, industry stakeholders need to understand the capabilities of the technology and how it could help support ultrafast broadband rollouts to businesses and consumers.

In July, a group of service providers and vendors including Verizon, Altice, NTT and Vodafone as well as Tier 1 vendors such as Adtran, Calix and Ericsson created the NG-PON2 Forum. It set a goal to drive broad market for carrier adoption of this technology, increasing the volume of deployments and reducing the costs for both consumer and enterprise customers.

Bernd Hesse, NG-PON2 Forum founder and president, and senior director of technology development at Calix, said in a video interview2 alongside Broadband Forum CEO Robin Mersh that the group needed to broaden its reach.

“We need to widen the scope and the market and the Broadband Forum is an excellent place where we can fit in and get new technologies up,” Hesse said. embedded content

Widening the focus

By integrating the NG-PON2 Forum into the wider Broadband Forum organization, the NG-PON2 Council will get greater access to the Forum’s wide range of member operators and vendors.

This new group will work on eight different technical subject work areas. One of these areas, which the NG-PON2 Forum is working on today, is wavelength management. Mersh said in the video interview that adding NG-PON2 as part of its broader focus reflects the need to have direction over broader evolution taking place in the last mile network.

“The Broadband Forum right from the beginning was to reduce barriers to market for new technologies,” Mersh said. “We started out with DSL, GPON, G.fast, and NG-PON2 fits well into this.”

Mersh added that leveraging the NG-PON2 Forum’s work will enable the Broadband Forum to better inform the industry about the technology’s value.

“One part of reducing barriers to market is technical issues, which we’re doing work on for NG-PON,” Mersh said. “Another part of that is addressing education and informing the market so bringing in the work of the NG-PON2 Forum is totally logical.”

The Broadband Forum said the integration will be finalized after the Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference and Exhibition in Los Angeles, where the NG-PON2 Forum will hold a workshop session.

Carrier interest grows

This move is very timely as service providers are showing interest in NG-PON2. During the recent FTTH Council Conference 2017, a number of service providers said they are conducting lab or field trials, aiming for deployments in the near future.

For example, Northpower Fibre announced that it held the world’s first NG-PON2 demonstration in a live network in Whangarei, New Zealand, delivering 10 Gbps speeds over multiple wavelengths to hubs3 located in a business and a residence. But large service providers are also taking an interest in NG-PON2. Verizon, for one, completed its first NG-PON2 technology trial at its Verizon Labs location in Waltham, Massachusetts, in January.

During the trial, Verizon demonstrated that equipment from different vendors on each end of a single fiber–one on the service provider’s endpoint and that the customer premises–can deliver service without any end-user impact.

“I see the move of the NG-PON2 Forum into the Broadband Forum as recognition that not only is NG-PON2 technology a maturing technology, but of the industry’s interest in seeing NG-PON2 succeed,” said Dr.

Vincent O’Byrne, director of technology at Verizon and NG-PON2 Forum board member, in a release. “Establishing the NG-PON2 Council is an important milestone and a meaningful step for NG-PON2 and the industry.”

Teleste Corp1. announced a proof of concept (PoC) created with Iskratel2 that’s aimed at bringing to market a new solution for the delivery of internet-based broadband services that combines Iskratel’s GPON technology with Teleste’s DOCSIS-based mini-CMTS, called the DAH (DOCSIS Access Hub). The solution is said to enable operators to utilize the existing last mile coax cabling as an extension of their fiber networks.

A major benefit of combining GPON and DOCSIS technologies is said to be that it allows a fast and economical way to deliver fiber-level broadband connections inside buildings with a level of service that equals using fiber all the way. Operators can now utilize the Iskratel SI3000 Lumia as GPON OLT and Teleste’s DAH as GPON ONU products to deploy a true plug and play way to triple-play services. One DAH is said to make it possible to bring the IP network to every apartment in a building using the existing coax cabling, and once a DOCSIS cable modem has been connected to the network, the services start running immediately. The solution also fits into locations where laying new cable isn’t possible, including in many European historical buildings and city centers.

Huawei3 released its GigaHome solution that the company says “supports multiple digital home applications to deliver a smart home service that gives users convenience, security, accessibility, and efficiency.” The vendor points out in a statement that a 100 Mb/s bandwidth access rate does not always equate to a high-quality user experience. So operators are upgrading, but their networks face challenges including the complexity and variability of internal home networking, lack of visibility of home networks to provide rapid response and fault location, and difficulty integrating diversified services.

Huawei says its E2E solution focuses on home gateways and supports flexible WiFi extension through multiple media, such as the CAT5 lines, power lines, and wireless repeaters. With this solution, the company says “1+N” home networks support smart synchronization of network parameters and seamless roaming switching of terminals to achieve smart home network coverage with a WiFi speed rate of up to 300 Mb/s. Specifically, home gateways adopt dual cores and enable gigabit WiFi through any media by using WiFi hardware forwarding, dual-band, IEEE 802.11ac, and 4 x 4 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technologies, Huawei reports.

City Lights, a new luxury apartment building in Winooski, Vt., announced its lease agreement now includes a Burlington Telecom symmetrical, gigabit internet connection in every unit.

City Lights is scheduled to open in Summer 2017, and Burlington Telecom is providing a WiFi hotspot in the fitness center in addition to the 1 Gbps service.

“Fiber-optic networks are fast becoming the gold standard both at work and at home, so it was important for us to have Burlington Telecom for this project.” Jacqueline Dagesse, one of the project’s developers says. “Including Gig internet as an amenity offers our tenants instant access to the fastest, most reliable connectivity available without the hassles of signing up for service, waiting for an installer, or committing to long-term contracts.”